The present invention relates to panty hose garments and more particularly to a panty hose garment particularly suited for larger hip-sized wearers.
In the manufacture of conventional panty hose, two identical seamless tubular sleeves (i.e. blanks) are knit and vertical slits are respectively formed in the welts thereof. The corresponding edges of the slits are then aligned and seamed to form a garment in which a single continuous U-seam extends downwardly from the waist opening through the crotch portion and vertically upwardly in the rear seat portion of the panty. Such conventional type of panty hose known as the "U-seam" construction is shown in U.S. Pat. Re. No. 25,360.
In the U-seam panty hose resulting from the foregoing method of manufacture, the panty portion is identically dimensioned in the front and rear panels thereof. In such conventional U-seam panty hose, although the knitted nylon fabric in the garment to some extent stretches to accomodate the natural protuberances of the body of the wearer, i.e. buttocks, hips and stomach, the increased stretching causes the waistline to sink when the wearer is seated and the panty crotch to "bag" resulting in a rather poor fit.
Furthermore, even in the standing position, an increased hip size will cause lateral stretching of the panty portion thus distorting the fit of the panty portion.
Various knitted and sewn constructions have been suggested to provide increased fullness and/or elasticity in the rear panel of the panty portion in order to overcome or, at least, mitigate the foregoing deficiencies in fit of conventional U-seam panty hose. Such suggested constructions, however, require some complicated machinery for carrying out the various types of knitting and sewing steps, thus substantially increasing the cost of manufacture of the finished product.
Since the conventional single U-seam panty hose has been known for some time, there presently exist highly developed automatic panty hose crotch closing machines for manufacturing such panty hose garments. Furthermore, in view of the relatively economical cost of manufacture thereof as compared with panty hose having a modified knitted rear panel construction, as described above, a substantial demand for conventional U-seam panty hose presently exists and probably will continue to exist. Accordingly, relatively small panty hose manufacturers are reluctant to dispose of their existing U-seam panty hose crotch closing machine.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide panty hose economical to manufacture and which provides an improved fit in the panty portion thereof.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide panty hose which comprises a panty portion constructed so as to conformably accomodate larger than average hip dimensions of the wearer.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacture of panty hose of the character described which method utilizes existing automatic panty hose crotch closing machines presently used for manufacturing conventional U-seam panty hose.